Zechariah 2:4

And said unto him. — Some commentators suppose that it is the angel-interpreter who here speaks; but if this were the case, an “other angel” would be a superfluous figure in the vision, for the angel-interpreter might have addressed “this young man” directly. Accordingly, we agree with the Authorised Version in taking this “other angel” as the speaker.

This young man is by some supposed to be Zechariah: but it gives a much more definite turn to the meaning of the vision to understand the expression as referring to “the man with the measuring line.”

Towns without walls — i.e., unfortified towns. A similar expression in the Hebrew is contrasted with “fortified cities” in 1 Samuel 6:18. The “other angel,” for the instruction of Zechariah, directs the angel-interpreter to inform the man who was measuring that there could be no object in taking an exact measure of Jerusalem, since “for the multitude of men and cattle” it would soon exceed its original limits. It would be an unnecessary forcing of the words to suppose with some commentators that the measurer is called a “young man” on account of his simplicity and ignorance. That this prophecy was fulfilled in the grandeur and extent of Jerusalem may be seen by a reference to the descriptions of it, after its restoration, by Aristéas (Ed. Schmidt), Hecatæus, &c. Josephus (Bell, Jud i. 5. 4, 92) says that in the time of Herod Agrippa Jerusalem had, “by reason of the multitude” or its inhabitants, gradually “extended beyond its original limits,” so that another hill had to be taken in, which was fortified, and called “Bezethá.”